Glass

“Your bronze skin

That dark hair

and those full eyebrows.

Body shaped like an hourglass.

Every inch of you is beautiful.

You are what they would call ‘exotic’ looking

Worldwide they speak of the beauty of Arab women.”

He says I must cover my body.

But he’s kind enough to let my hands and face be.

He’s worried I might otherwise catch the eye,

“Wear dull colors, and oversized clothes to shield you.”

“Speak softly and never reveal your voice!”

“Keep your gaze low and do not to lock eyes with any man.”

 

“No you may not go to Medical school, why does it matter that your grades are high? How would you be able to be a mother and a wife? Your youth would be stolen by what you call ambition!”

But, Yuba? What if I wasn’t born to be a wife?

“Are you being disobedient to me?”

No. As you please.

Even at the end, when I managed to do all of the above

One day my husband decided one prized possession is not enough.

Our life together was not satisfying anymore, he says.

She walked in thinking she was a princess.

The poor thing doesn’t know what’s coming.

Days will go by and the cycle will repeat itself.

After many years of “taamir amir’s”

I went to visit the first captain of my soul,

Made up now of just resentment,

I will never forgive you, father!

I will never forgive you, father!

I yelled as I cast off all the layers I was wearing.

He looked up at me, as his lips curled into a smile, “what you don’t understand, dear daughter, is that you broke the rules by thinking your dreams mattered. You are the mother of seven and the first wife to a good man, why the ungratefulness? What more could you want of life?”